Third largest US city readies to choose mayor to head racially diverse Chicago

Chicago voters head to the polls on Tuesday to choose a new mayor in an election expected to lead to an April runoff to determine who will lead the third-largest U.S. city, which has struggled with crime and racial divisions.

Rahm Emanuel, the mayor since 2011 and previously White House chief of staff to former U.S. President Barack Obama, threw the race wide open in September with a surprise announcement that he would not seek a third term. That led political newcomers as well as well-known names like William Daley, 70, the son and brother of two previous Chicago mayors and former U.S. commerce secretary who succeeded Emanuel as Obama's chief of staff, to enter the race.

The racially diverse field of 14 is the largest of any Chicago mayoral election, said Jim Allen, Chicago Election Board spokesman. If no candidate receives a majority, the top two vote-getters will face off in a runoff on April 2, he said. Emanuel faced calls to resign after a video of the fatal police shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald was released more than a year after the 2014 incident. Ongoing police reform efforts loom large over the vote, with national implications.

President Donald Trump has criticized reforms like mandatory federal oversight of the Chicago Police Department, warning of a "crime spree" in what was historically one of the most violent cities in the United States. Chicago saw its murder rate fall in 2017 and 2018. White former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was sentenced in January to nearly seven years in prison for murdering McDonald in a landmark case that highlighted the city's racial tensions.

Lori Lightfoot, 56, a former federal prosecutor who has been prominent in the reform debate as Chicago Police Board president, is running. So is Garry McCarthy, 59, former Chicago police superintendent whom Emanuel fired after the video was released. Other candidates include Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, 46, and Toni Preckwinkle, 71, Cook County board president. Amara Enyia, 35, was little known until musician Chance the Rapper endorsed her.

"We're all predicting there's going to be a runoff," Northwestern University political science professor Jaime Dominguez said in a phone interview. Dominguez expects a second round with Daley and Preckwinkle, the two candidates he said had the most money. "From there, it could be a toss-up," he said.

The next Chicago mayor will also inherit a $28 billion unfunded pension liability and escalating contributions to the city's four retirement systems that will top $2 billion starting in 2023. The debt-dependent and junk-rated Chicago Public Schools, the nation's third-largest system, is also a mayoral responsibility.